STATEHOUSE ROUNDUP: A week full of bagpipes

Bagpipes provided the atmosphere. Beacon Hill paused twice last week for emotional send-offs to the two Boston firefighters killed in a wind-swept Back Bay blaze, the sounds of the Scottish instrument wafting through the streets.

Bagpipes provided the atmosphere. Beacon Hill paused twice last week for emotional send-offs to the two Boston firefighters killed in a wind-swept Back Bay blaze, the sounds of the Scottish instrument wafting through the streets.

The same notes were being used to lift the spirits of the city April 4 as Boston Mayor Martin Walsh took the ball from the hands of Thomas Menino to throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park’s Boston Red Sox home opener. Spring, at least metaphorically, had arrived.

With schedules shifted around all three events last week, the House incrementally pushed the issue of raising the minimum wage forward as it voted strongly in favor of a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour by 2016, reform unemployment insurance and give rights to domestic workers.

The differences between the House and Senate – policy-wise – over these issues are well-documented. Also established is the ongoing tension between Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo over exactly how to procedurally get a bill finalized and on Gov. Deval Patrick’s desk. Process isn’t usually an obstacle on issues where both Murray and DeLeo want to see progress.

DeLeo may have answered one question last week, which was whether he actually wanted to see a minimum wage bill pass the House at all. Everything else is up in the air, and even for supporters of raising the minimum wage that might not be the worst thing.

“From the beginning, there’s been a failsafe plan to ensure the voters of the commonwealth have a chance to weigh in on this issue,” Sen. Marc Pacheco, a sponsor of minimum wage legislation, said.

Pacheco said he’s not the least bit concerned about the legislation falling victim to House and Senate infighting. Why? Because activists are ready to put a question on the November ballot if it fails.

One thing the House and Senate didn’t have trouble agreeing to was allocating death benefits for the families of the two fallen firefighters and a Plymouth police officer killed in a motorcycle accident. Both branches signed off without hesitation on $450,000, or $150,000 each, for the families of the three public servants killed in the line of duty.

North Adams Regional Hospital shut its doors amidst worsening financial conditions, sending public officials scrambling to figure out whether there was a future for the hospital, even under a different overseer.

Gubernatorial candidates flocked to North Adams to talk about the importance of regional health care access. Treasurer Steven Grossman promised to hand deliver a check from the Treasury if he got the thumbs-up. And Patrick, state lawmakers, hospital executives and Congressional leaders put their minds together to devise a plan to restore emergency care access to the region.

Page 2 of 3 - The hospital remains closed, but signs were pointing to doctors and nurses returning to work in North Adams sooner rather than later. Berkshire Medical Center is pursuing an expedited application to open a satellite emergency department in North Adams with hospice and visiting nurse services restored for the area. Once those licenses from state and federal regulators are in place, leaders will begin to study how many additional services can be maintained at the facility.

“I think that the expectation is that there will be a medical facility in North Adams, although in a diminished form,” Patrick said.

The same could have been said about the Massachusetts Republican Party, if you put much stock into the April Fools’ Day panoply of special elections. For MassGOP Chairwoman Kirsten Hughes, April 1 was a no good, very bad day.

After threatening a lawsuit for more than a week, Tea Party businessman Mark Fisher went ahead late in the afternoon and filed the paperwork in Suffolk Superior Court, claiming the party improperly counted the ballots at their convention in Boston March 22 and denied him access to the primary ballot that he rightfully deserved.

At a time when Hughes could have been focused on voter outreach with special elections ongoing in multiple districts across the state, she was instead conferring with lawyers about setting up a legal fund to defend the party in a suit from one of its members.

“The time to unify behind our ticket and work toward making a difference in our communities is now. However, I am aware there are remaining questions regarding the process of endorsing candidates,” she wrote to members of the state committee.

Meanwhile, voters were headed to the polls to decide five special elections in which Republicans were competing in only three. And they lost all three, including a House seat in Westfield that has been in GOP hands since at least 1979. Democrat John Velis edged Republican Dan Allie to take the House seat formerly held by Republicans Don Humason, Michael Knapik and former Minority Leader Steven Pierce.

For a party that desperately needs to add members to the Legislature, attempts to find the positive were few and far between.

Looking ahead to the November election, a day later the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that could alter the financial calculations for Republicans and Democrats alike. While the 5-4 decision to strike down aggregate campaign contribution limits drew a consensus rebuke from Bay State Democrats, the opposition party was relatively silent on the issue, at least in Massachusetts.

Page 3 of 3 - The impact of the ruling in this state is that the Office of Campaign and Political Finance said it would stop enforcement of the $12,500 annual cap on aggregate donations to individual candidates. While the $500 limit on donations to individual candidates still stands, big-money donors can now spread their wealth to as many candidates as they like, potentially benefiting GOP candidates who have often argued the low contribution limits favor incumbent Democrats. Of course, the decision cuts both ways.